What? Again? Already?
Yes, as shocking as it may be to believe since it totally feels like I just did this, it’s Thursday night, and that means that instead of sitting down to watch the all-new Bring it On: Fight to the Finish
Here’s what I picked up this week…
…and here’s what I thought about ’em!
Ghost Riders: Heaven’s On Fire #2: Over the past few months, I’ve talked more than a few times about how awesome Jason Aaron is, but there’s one thing that might not be readily apparent about the guy: He is hilarious.
Then again, given the stuff I tend to flip out over–Smokey and the Bandit Ghost Riders, Wolverine getting punched in the soul and fighting guys who have guns that shoot cancer–Aaron’s sense of humor might me more recognizable than I’m giving it credit for. Still, nowhere has he been funnier than the opening scene of this issue, wherein Master Pandemonium tries to eat breakfast.
Those of you who are already familiar with Master P will already know why this is hilarious, but for those of you who don’t spend your time prowling through mid-70s issues of Avengers, here’s the short version: Master Pandemonium, owing to a deal with the devil that he clearly did not think through, has demons for arms. This idea–not to mention the fact that he once swapped out the demons for the Scarlet Witch’s babies in an apparent attempt to have the most useless hands ever–is already hilarious (not to mention inspirational), but the idea of this miserable bastard trying to have some cereal while his own hands are punching him in the face because they are demons just cracks me right up. And Aaron pulls it off, just like he pulls off something equally as awesome in pretty much every comic he’s written.
Plus, I’m pretty sure this thing’s got Killdozer in it.
Incognito #6: At this point, saying that Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips made the best comic I read all week is almost a total copout. Those guys have been doing amazing work together since Scene of the Crime
It’s not just Brubaker and Philips that make this one so good, though. I mean sure, they’re the major factor, and the story that finishes this issue has all the earmarks of their quality work together. As good as he is on super-hero titles like Captain America and his woefully overlooked run on Batman
So yeah, those two are awesome, but what really sends this one over the top is the bonus material, an essay on the Zeppelin Pulps by Jess Nevins that opens with a full-page piece by Sean Phillips of a man with a ray-gun battling a gorilla while dangling from a dirigible. Listeners to this week’s episode of War Rocket Ajax heard Jess refer to this piece as being Jess’s favorite thing that he’s ever written, and it’s easy to see why as it might by my favorite thing of his that I’ve read. He recaps the brief, wild popularity ofthe zeppelin pulp from its propaganda origins to its sudden death at the hands of the Hindenberg disaster, and in the process writes about some truly amazing things, including the single greatest magazine title I have ever read.
It’s the delicious icing on an already fantastic cake, and it’s one of the best things I’ve read in a while.
Invincible Iron Man #17: It’s been a while since I’ve actually sat down and written something about Matt Fraction’s comics–mostly because I’m pretty sure that if I say any more stuff about how much I love his work and what a great guy he is, we’ll actually be legally married in the state of South Carolina, and I don’t think Kelly Sue would appreciate that–but it’s always worth mentioning that this guy can still just straight up knock one out of the park, which is exactly what he does in this one.
Specifically, it’s Tony’s email to Maria Hill that really got me in this one, and while I’m used to Fraction getting the fist-pumping gut reaction to awesome moments (like, you know, Cyclops having a jetpack or pretty much every page of Mantooth!
It’s been a fun story–and it’s always nice to see a clever reason for Tony to dig out his old armor–but in this issue, when Tony sends an email to Maria Hill from the covert Gmail address Fraction set up as a plot device at the beginning of the series, it’s just heartbreaking. It’s Flowers for Algernon Starring Iron Man, and while that could easily go awry into the realm of the maudlin, Fraction pulls off every misspelled word of it with Tony’s childlike earnestness, guilt, and–for me, the saddest bit–the fact that he no longer remembers what happened to Captain America. It’s excellent stuff, and it’s a good reminder of just why he’s one of the best writers working today.
Iron Man: Armor Wars #2: And speaking of Iron Man comics that I really like, we’ve got this one. Much like Paul Tobin’s incredible Dr. Doom And The Masters Of Evil
I’ve mentioned my affection for the original Armor Wars story before–as far as Shellhead stories go, it’s second only to Armor Wars II, a story for which I have a completely unnecessary amount of love–but aside from the title, Joe Caramagna’s version doesn’t have much to do with the original, and rather than rehashing the same plot, this takes a different direction: Instead of Tony Stark tracking down armors based on his technology (and being a total jerk to Stingray while he’s at it), this one has a mysterious villain actually steal all of his Iron Man suits and put them on existing villains to further the glory of mother Russia, leaving Tony to fight them off in a borrowed suit of Dr. Doom’s armor.
One more time, for those of you in the back: This is a comic where Tony Stark puts on Dr. Doom’s armor and fights super-villains in Iron Man suits. And that is a hoot. And to make things even more fun, he’s taking out the villians in more-or-less the order of the Iron Man armors they’re wearing, going from his hollowed-out Doombot to the old-school Gold version to the classic yellow and gold in the space of this issue, essentially doing the reverse of what Fraction’s got him doing in Invincible Iron Man.
Like I said before, it fits right in with the Marvel Adventures line in that it’s lighthearted but still full of great action and incredibly enjoyable moments, and everybody–yes, everybody–ought to check it out. After all, it’s got panels like this:
And what more could you want?
Justice League: Cry For Justice #3: I actually live-blogged my reaction to the issue yesterday on Twitter, but for those of you who don’t find yourselves hanging on my every 140-word missive, the gist of it was that this has got to be one of the worst comics I have ever read.
My main problem with it is very simple, and it’s one that I’ve mentioned before: This is a book where Green Lantern and the Atom torture people. And it’s not the Batman dangling-the-perp-off-the-ledge type either; Green Lantern ties a man up and then the Atom jumps around inside his brain–which, if you’ll remember, is exactly how the Atom’s ex-wife killed somebody–until he’s screaming in pain. And they are the good guys.
Now, I don’t often object to comics on moral grounds (in fact, outside of the sketchier bits of Tarot, I’m hard-pressed to think of a time when I’ve done so), and if it were another character that was built around a different idiom, it’d be a different matter. I mean, I’m a big fan of the Punisher, and I’ve read The Slavers
As near as I can tell, Hal’s upset because of the recent deaths of Batman and the Martian Manhunter, and while two friends being murdered might be enough to get you to completely abandon your pre-existing moral structure, it would probably have more of an impact if he and the guy he spends most of the series talking to hadn’t died themselves and come back from the dead none the worse for wear. This, incidentally, is the same thing that happens in Blackest Night #1, where Barry Allen asks Hal to tell him who all had died and Hal puts on a little light show that is, I think, meant to be really moving in showing everyone who died, but conveniently leaves out characters that have returned from the dead, like Superman, Green Arrow, and Barry and Hal themselves. Yes, this is metafictional thinking, but when you set up a universe where the only thing that it takes to shuffle back into the mortal coil is for someone to want to write the characters they liked when they were twelve, the characters seem disingenuous when they get upset about what essentially amounts to the drunk tank of fiction.
Which is to say that even if there is some sort of motivation that makes Green Lantern torturing someone okay, this book sure as hell doesn’t have it. And again, not every character needs to have a strict moral code, and not every book needs to have the nobody-needs-to-suffer mentality of All Star Superman
I’m not Frederick H. Moral Relativism or anything, but I’m pretty sure that when your Glowing Green Space-Cop is losing the moral high ground to the fucking Punisher, there’s a problem with your story.
And even if it’s all building to Hal having some sort of revelation about how it’s wrong to torture someone in the name of justice, that’s some shit the guy DC’s been pushing down our throats as the Greatest of the Green Lanterns should’ve figured out a while ago, and if it turns out that Hal’s been mind-controlled by yet another stupid giant yellow space-bug, then that’s even worse, especially since it doesn’t excuse Green Arrow–remember Green Arrow? Hal’s “liberal conscience” from the ’70s?–from doing nothing other than saying, and I quote, “I gotta ask, Hal–is this right? I mean, isn’t this torture?” Again, they’re not my characters, but I’m pretty sure Green Arrow has been written for the past thirty years as a guy who is pretty quick to make moral judgments on issues like torturing people. So since either method of Robinson cheating his way out of having written a bloodthirsty exxxtreme Green Lantern that would embarrass the creators of Extreme Justice is actually worse than playing it straight, Green Lantern just cold torturing people is the best option. And that’s hardly an option at all.
Even beyond those aspects, though, the book’s just bad. Robinson’s always had a flair for purple prose, in this book he manages to combine breathlessly turgid dialogue (Hal justifies his torture by saying “Ask me that when the sting of Bruce and J’onn’s death and all the others has gone away, if it ever does,” once again conveniently forgetting that the sting of his own death went away when he came back, and the Atom actually says “the pain we feel can’t be fixed with an aspirin,” which is just hilarious) with the immaturity of a twelve year-old who just learned how to swear. There’s a joke about Green Lantern’s dick on page two and a minor villain is made to shit himself on p.21, presumably because writing “THIS AIN’T YOUR DADDY’S COMIC!!!!” on the cover would’ve been too much like the silliness of the Silver Age. Except that Robinson throws in scenes like Congorilla and Starman jumping out of a plane to fight robots, and the juxtaposition just makes it come off as stupid, as it’s hard to do a lighthearted romp when your main characters are torturing a suicide bomber on the previous page.
Which brings us to its overarching problem: Cry For Justice is trying too hard. It tries too hard to be emotionally resonant, which means everyone speaks in pithy, soul-tortured quotes that even the Hot Topic crowd would roll their eyes at. It tries too hard to be badass, which leads to torture, which you might’ve guessed I have a slight problem with. It tries too hard to be adult, thus dick jokes and IQ shitting himself, making it read like Robinson doing a worse version of Identity Crisis. It tries too hard to be fun, and a talking gorilla yelling “tally ho” and discussing Long Island Iced Tea comes off as an obnoxious, out-of-place reach.
It tries too hard at everything except being good, and it’s a failure on every level.
Strange Tales #1: I’m not a religious man, but even I have to admit that the fact that Marvel let Johnny Ryan anywhere near their characters is nothing short of a minor miracle.
For those of you who haven’t been looking forward to it as much as I have, the deal with Strange Tales is that Marvel’s letting indie creators–including favorites of mine like James Kochalka
I do wonder, though, why Marvel didn’t go to ISB favorite Chip Zdarsky, especially when we all know he has some Marvel pitches ready to go.
And that’s the week! As always, if you have any questions or concerns about the reviews–like if you want to talk about the unfortunate (but highly entertaining) finish of Exiles and whether my dreams will come true and see Salva Espin joining Jeff Parker on Agents of Atlas, or if you want to discuss the merits of the new Achewood collection
I’m getting the rest of [i]Cry For Justice[/i] cheap at comic cons. It just feels like a bit of a waste of money. I’m sure Robinson can do better, but I don’t need to spend that much to see the further adventures of Mikkal Tomas.
Any opinions on [i]Doctor Who[/i]? I remember Tony Lee talking about the last few pages and setup for future issues, and he seemed enthused. Now I am as well.
I swear, I’ll get [i]Strange Tales[/i] down the road. Maybe Marvel can get the indie cred that DC used to have with [i]Solo[/i]. Really, I never knew Jason could do Spider-Man. Now I have something to ask for if I see him at a convention.
And I screwed up the HTML tags. Sorry about that, Chris.
“It tries too hard at everything except being good, and it’s a failure on every level.”
But seriously, Chris, tell us how you really feel.
p.s. I agree on all points stated.
Robinson SHOULD be better than this, is the problem. I mean, his writing is more or less always extraordinarily heavy-handed and turgid, but generally, his ideas, themes, and plots are excellent.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is some whole symbolic thing about the nature of comic books, like that one storyline where Superman fought the Authority knock-offs. Hal and his team of torture buddies are going to make a terrible mistake because of their actions, and this is going to lead into Robinson’s run on the regular JLA title, which will be all about superheroes and nobility.
Even IF that’s the plan, though, it’s still a little sickening to read this and have no one in the book say a damn thing.
Anywho, as always, the reviews were an excellent read, Mr. Sims.
Terrific review of Cry For Justice, though I fervently hope that the Comments aren’t swamped by arguing about it. And if we really are leading up to a conclusion where Extreme Justice League wise up, I hope it’s because J’onn J’onzz returns from the dead just to kick their asses.
I’m wondering if you really can jump around on Clayface’s brain.
Yeah, when did Clayface get sinuses? And I know this is pure geekery and not engaging the book on the level the author wants us to, but did Hal just refer to “Bruce and J’onn” by their first names right in front of what he seems to think is Prometheus, the guy who almost killed the JLA? I mean, sure the names don’t mean much out of context, but deeply Jordan-esque lack of discipline there.
After reading and loving Strange Tales, and reading Wednseday Comics after and realizing that I didn’t enjoy it as much…I’ve kind of come to realize that, as excited as I was for Wednesday Comics in the beginning, I think the format on the whole was really not the best one.
By giving us 15 stories with a page each a week that all stretch over 12 issues, I think DC may not have realized that, as nifty and hip an experiment as that may sound, they may have brought out the worst drawbacks of and at the same time softened the greatest strengths of anthology books.
The drawback to any anthology being that it’s almost impossible for you to like all, or even almost all, of the stories, this leaves you stuck with any stories you don’t like for the entire run. And with the stories you do like, well, you have to wait for the 12 issues to be over to get what it’s about in the first place, it’s easy to lose track and interest when you’re reading tons of stuff a week, and you also have to hope that the stories don’t get weaker as they go along.
With Strange Tales, reading and enjoying the format more, the biggest strength with anthologies is that they do indeed provide short stories, and a short story really does work best when you get it all in one read. Whether you’re aware or unaware of it, the strength comes from their exercise of structure – a perfectly flowing beginning, middle, and end, and it’s frustrating having to wait 12 weeks, getting a page at a time, in seeing that unfold.
….long post, I know, but ultimately I think DC made a mistake with how they chose to do Wednesday Comics. I’m glad it’s a commercial success because I would like to see a second edition, but they need to change it up a bit. They need to mix it up with two-parters, three-parters, four-parters, at the max six-parters through the 12 issue run, maybe only two six-part stories reserved for real epics like, say, a New Gods story or a twisting mystery. And, hey, throw some 1-pagers into that as well. Plus, this lets us see even more DC characters (it’s not like they’re gonna run out!).
Does the phrase “Enhanced Interrogation Technique” appear in Cry For Justice?
In JL:CFJ #4, Green Lantern spends three pages explaining that waterboarding isn’t really torture. Or so I hear.
OK uhm so , my names ilene , & I’m the most die – harded , obsessed fan of Cry For Justice & James Robinson . & this revoo is wrong. absolutly wrong . your pathetic & your sick . you have no right. if you want to sit at your computer all day & do shit like this , go ahead . but don’t post it on your pathetic website. its a waste of a site. you have a great day now , & u keep being an asshole. bye(;
I never would have expected hack writing from Robinson before this series, but it’s just gotten progressively worse. Is there anything more cliched than showing what a badass your villain is by having him kill a bunch of third and fourth string heroes?
Even worse is that he does it off panel, violating the “show, don’t tell” rule to rob the whole thing of any of the emotional weight he thought it was supposed to have.
Did you enjoy the Barack the Barbarian second issue as much as the first one?
Apparently, Professor IQ is such a super-genius that he fall for the old ‘something in your drink’ gag? Oh man, this stuff is just AWFUL.
It smacks of editorial mandate and a failed attempt at relevance. Why, DC, WHY? Trying to insert real-world issues into the four-color world isn’t futile, but you have to couch it properly or it comes off as preposterous, as Chris masterfully demonstrates here.
Let’s look at the Justice League:
Superman – Died and Returned (also, Legacy)
Batman – Died and will return (also, Legacy)
Wonder Woman – Died and Returned (also, Legacy)
Flash – Died and returned (also, Legacy)
Green Lantern – Died and Returned (also, Legacy)
Green Arrow – Died and Returned (also, Legacy)
Aquaman – Died and Returned and Died, then Legacy
Atom – Disappeared and presumed dead TWICE, Legacy
Red Tornado – Died and Returned (x100)
Firestorm – Died and Returned (x2), then Legacy
I could go on, but you get the point. The STING of Batman and J’onn’s deaths? Really? Dude, everybody in your inner circle has DIED (or appeared to, as far as anyone knew) and then come back. Hence the long-running joke at Marvel that Siryn never accepted her father’s death, because she assumed Banshee would be back (since every other X-man has died at least TWICE and come back).
FYI, the artist on Scene of the Crime was Michael Lark, not Sean Phillips.
I’m with ya all the way Re: Cry For Moral Retardation.
On the other hand, I’m chagrined and flabbergasted* that you reviewed Strange Tales and didn’t even mention the M.O.D.O.K. story.
(*chlabgergrinsted)
FYI, the artist on Scene of the Crime was Michael Lark, not Sean Phillips.
FYI, Lark was the penciller, Phillips did inks on #2-4, which is why his name’s on the cover.
I have to say, the last few pages of Ghost Riders: Heavens on Fire? Easily one of the coolest scenes I’ve seen in a long time. When you get the All-New Orb (who is totally the Sensational Character Find of 2008), Trull the Inhuman (who I had to look up), Madcap, Marvel Scarecrow, the Deacon, Vengeance, and freaking BIG WHEEL teaming up to kick some ass… that’s beautiful.
Also, re: Armor Wars, I love when there’s lots of characters (or in the case of an Iron Man story, armor will also do) doing lots of stuff and you have to be able to identify them to know what’s going on. Like, I saw the bear talking and holding the bomb and knew immediately that it was Ursa Major being awesome as usual.
have to admit I cracked up when I clicked the link that led me to the WF #195 cover, wasn’t expecting that.
also on CFJ, it’s pretty sad when the best part of your comic is what basically amounts to a blog post of you talking about old characters, instead of you know, the actual comic.
I have a very faint hope that at least by the time he takes over the main JLA book with Bagley he’ll start writing stuff that’s at least halfway decent. I mean his initial arc on Superman wasn’t very good, but contrast that with WoNK which is pretty darn good imho.
Sigh….
It truly has gotten to the point where whenever I read a prominent CBB write the words, “one of the worst comics I have ever read,” I instantly know they’re talking about my favourite book of the week.
In the face of such overwhelming antipathy I shan’t bother to defend it, but I really dug it and look forward to more.
(From the guy who was brought back to buying weekly comics by that other “worst ever” comic book work, Identity Crisis.)
“what essentially amounts to the drunk tank of fiction.”
This is perhaps your pithiest bit of insight to date. Well done, sir.
What’s worse is that James Robinson is also establishing a really disturbing body count in this series.
He’s killed a black superhero (Freedom Beast), a black gay man (Mikaal’s boyfriend), theree senior citizens (Flash’s 3 pals from the ’40s who used to be supporting cast), a Chinese female superhero (Gloss) and turned a gay superhero into a rug. (Tasmanian Devil).
DC does not have enough gay superheroes that we can afford to use them as home decor.
Y’know, from some writers, seeing a talking gorilla and a blue bisexual alien from the ’70s leap out of a WW2-era airplane to fight flying killer robots over the ocean would be sheer awesome.
Sadly, Robinson’s blew just about all the goodwill he had with me with this relentlessly absurd parody of the Justice League.
“My father’s dead. I want justice. Together, we can be justice!” Oh really?
Three issues in, and we don’t even have a team. Just people waiting to order the justice burger and a side of justice fries.
Sigh.
“I’m pretty sure that when your Glowing Green Space-Cop is losing the moral high ground to the fucking Punisher, there’s a problem with your story.”
This needs to be a blurb on the cover of the Cry For Justice TPB.
Yeah, it’s like DC’s completely forgetten how Hal Jordan reacted last time a bunch of his friends died, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. I wonder, is Robinson ever going to bring that up?
I agree with you (for the most part) about JL:CFJ, and should probably drop it. But like all good trainwrecks…
What’s more, that text piece kind of gives the game away, right? If he really wants to bring Prometheus back to the villainous promise he showed before the best-forgotten attempt to shore up Hush’s credibility, then he’s limiting the options of how this story can end. Either Prometheus gets away from this extreeeem JLA and they end up looking like dopes, or else they send him to jail, and then what did they do that’s any different than the ordinary JLA would do? And it’s one or the other, because if they kill him…Robinson’s already admitted that it won’t stick! And if death doesn’t stick, what has Hal been whining about?!
Thank you for saving me some cash.
Hot DAMN, do I love me some AGENTS OF ATLAS.
And agreed, that last page was GREAT.
Quick! Get to the BRING IT ON: ALL OR NOTHING review — will there be a return of Bring it On Week and other fine ruminations on Cheersploitation.
“Is there anything more cliched than showing what a badass your villain is by having him kill a bunch of third and fourth string heroes?”
Which is one of the few things people rag on Robinson for from Starman, the comic that earned him all that good will he’s busy pissing away.
Also, yes please on Parker and Espin on Atlas.
James Robinson was never good.
The text piece in Incognito wasn’t real was it? Those pulps never came out, this was the back-story to the series itself, Doc Zeppelin, Lazarus and Black Death. It was a very clever idea, playing on the lack of knowledge of pulps by modern readers, and writing it completely plain-faced. I kind of thought it was real, I wish it was real!
“Is there anything more cliched than showing what a badass your villain is by having him kill a bunch of third and fourth string heroes? ”
The thing that always gets me with that is in his second Green Arrow arc Kevin Smith needed to do that but made new characers up (As far as I know) to kill, and there was no lessened impact, the character didn’t feel any less badass.
Honest question: Considering your web-omnipresence, why does your shop’s site still think it’s 9/26/07? Or is there a newer site I’m missing?
I have nothing to do with the store’s website.
holy shit, that Chip Zdarsky Marvel pitches site made me laugh an entire Coke 0 out my nose! “Wasp fucks Wendingo…”
“James Robinson was never good.”
Starman was good and nothing you say will change that fact. good day sir.
Which is one of the few things people rag on Robinson for from Starman, the comic that earned him all that good will he’s busy pissing away.
He pulled the same stunt when he launched JSA. It’s a particular tic of his.
Am I the only one a little peeved that Tasmanian Devil and one of the Clayfaces (either Sondra Fuller or Preston Payne) have been killed off to make Prometheus look all bad-ass, when Morrison was able to do the same thing without killing anyone? (Except Retro, I suppose, but he doesn’t count).
Have a good day.
John Cage
John — You’re not the only one. It seems like he read the Morrison JLA and completely missed what made it entertaining.
@ Punchniam:
I grew up reading errata about the Pulps, but I didn’t catch on until Spicy Zeppelin Stories. (Flying Cowboy Stories sounds well within the bounds of reason, though.)
Well played, Mr. Nevins. Well played.
PS:
1) Chris — thanks for the pointer to Strange Tales. “Horrors! I am incontinent with fear!”
(Plus, Uatu has WWII Wonder Woman’s legs.)
2) Lovin’ the alternating Amadeus Cho / The Replacement Thor issues of Incredible Hercules.
3) Last page of Agents of Atlas: I believe M-11 is sporting all of ROM’s accessories.
Chris, I knew CFJ was Suck territory from issue #1. We’re taking Superheroes into gray moral areas! THIS WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU SEE COMICS! NO, REALLY!! Like the pubescent who sees a few stray follicles above his lip and envisions a walrus mustache; that it came from the Starman guy just makes me question Starman.
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